A Stroke of Paint on a Goban
by LuminaTheCell
Summary: Shindo Hikaru's life revolved around art, with Go being a hobby curtsy of a ghost in a haunted Goban. However, beating a go prodigy in what was supposed to be a simple game sent her life spiraling into the world of professionals and searching for the Hand of God. Maybe she can add just a bit of color in the dull world of go. Fem!Hikaru. Eventual AkiHika
1. Chapter 1

**The beginning starts out similar to the manga, but I promise that the plot deviates after this chapter.**

**Be warned. I'm not an artist, so do take what I say here with a grain of salt.**

* * *

Shindo Hikaru had been drawing since she could hold a pencil. It was hard not to with an art teacher for a mother and an art appraiser for a father. Ever since she could remember, art had surrounded her family in more than just the paintings they bought.

Every painting had a story, her mother always told her as she helped her move the brush around the canvas. Art was a living this, full or life and emotions just like the people who created them. Each piece, whether it be a doodle or a life size sculpture, contained a piece of the artist's soul, mind and body. A world of possibilities was in front of her, waiting for her to create on the blank canvas. It was them that she decided that she would she too would create her own worlds. Her mother, seeing her daughter's talent, wasted no time in acquiring tutors and teachers to help her grow and nourish her skills. By the time she was ten, she had been considered an art prodigy by many of her teachers and her father's friends.

Hikaru had never felt more happy than when she was holding a brush, paint splattered on her smock and on the canvas below. There was nothing that she couldn't do with a brush in hand.

Except this.

The thirteen year old coughed harshly as she accidentally inhaled the large puff of powder, cursing to the heavens as it got into her mouth and all over the badly applied lipstick. She now remembered why she hated make-up. Sai laughing at her in the background was not helpful in the slightest.

"Will you shut up already? I'm doing this for you, you know?" She growled, wiping off and smearing the red blush with a napkin. "You could at least help me out here."

"_I don't see how this is my fault, Hikaru_." Sai said, concealing his giggles behind his large sleeves. Even though he had zero knowledge of the beauty standards for today, he could tell that Hikaru had no idea what she was doing.

"You're the one who wanted to go out to a go salon! I wouldn't have had to put this stuff on if you stopped bugging me about it." She said, trying to figure out how to open her mother's eye shadow palette.

Why wouldn't this crap blend correctly?

"_But Hikaru, you and many women in this time go out without make up everyday."_

"Which is what makes this a perfect disguise!" She said, grabbing a random brush thing from the container. What this for eye shadow? Well it was now.

Why couldn't makeup brushes be like her paint brushes? At least that was a language that she understood.

"_Disguise? Why on earth would you need a disguise to go to a go salon?"_

"Of course I need a disguise, Sai. Do you know how far my reputation would drop if my friends found out I play an old man's game? That's like, social suicide!" Hikaru sighed. "I think I'm done here."

_"But Hikaru, you've been playing games with me, your grandfather and Akari for years now and they haven't said that there was anything wrong with it."_

"That's because you guys-" She was interrupted by footsteps.

Just then, the door opened and her mother walked in.

"Hikaru, lunch is re- OH DEAR!"

Her mother looked absolutely horrified, though she quickly masked it. Her eyes looked over to her make up collection over Hikaru's floor, lingering more on her dirty brushes and opened bottles of foundation. Hikaru felt a bit of heat rise to her cheeks (though it was impossible to notice with all the powder on her face) are her mother walked over and took the eyebrow pencil from Hikaru's hand. Her shock was fueled again when she saw her daughter, her shorts and t-shirts loving daughter, wearing one of Akari's new shirts (that was somehow spared from the makeup disaster) and-were her eyes playing tricks on her?- a skirt. She was very tempted to ask her what was wrong, certainly something must be, put decided to focus on the more pressing issue at hand.

"D-Did you do your makeup, sweetie?" Her mother gulped, forcing a smile on her face. "Here. Let me touch it up just a bit."

* * *

Hikaru had nearly passed out when she saw herself in the mirror that morning. Her mother had scrubbed off the mess on her face and redone everything (something that she was secretly grateful for, but she would never admit it). Though, much to her dismay, her mother had gone just a tad bit over board and decided to curl Hikaru's hair while she was at it.

"I'll never know when I'll get the chance again." She had said.

With the new clothes that Akari had given her, even though they were as far from her style as they could possibly get, there was no way anyone would recognize her in the streets. She couldn't even recognize herself. Akari didn't even look at her when she sneaked past her (though that probably had to do with her running the other way the second she saw her).

"_Go go go! We're going to go play Go!"_ Sai chanted, skipping beside her on their way to the Go Salon her grandfather recommended that she go to.

She couldn't help but start chanting along, even skipping slightly (tripping sometimes due to not being used to Akari's boots) as she followed the directions on the map. Sai's happiness and the new girly look was just something that she couldn't resist giving into. She clutch the small purse in her left hand tightly (curse this pocket-less skirt) so that nothing would fall out, while her right hand held her small sketch books and pencil.

As she walked, her eyes lingered throughout the streets of Tokyo, taking in all the shaped and colors of the building and streets, memorizing how the shapes were formed and how the colors blended in together. It was a habit she had picked up when she started drawing and it helped her improve the more she got older. Her hand twitched, fighting the urge to stop and sketch that really beautiful car that was parked a few feet away. She shook her head, continuing to hum along to Sai's song.

It wasn't until she reached the salon that she paused in her humming. Well, she ended up walking past it while humming and had to turn back, but it still counted. Taking a deep breath as she scanned the area for people she might know, she put on a charming smile and walked inside the little salon. It was surprisingly more modern looking inside than she was expecting, yet it still looked rather behind on times. Though the lighting was dim, she could clearly see the place was packed with old men around her grandfather's age or older.

Hikaru felt her eye twitch again, all the joy of her little chanting fit plummeting as she was reminded why she called go an 'old man's game'. This looked like a place that her grandfather would go to in his free time, a category that she really didn't want to be in.

_'Look at all these old geezers.' _She thought, earning herself a look of disapproval from the ghost with a scolding about respecting her elders. Luckily, in the four years she had known him, she had mastered the art of 'Tuning Sai Out'.

"Hello." The lady at the counter said. "Is this your first time here?"

Hikaru gave a polite (and rather forced) smile as she walked over to the desk. The lady grabbed a pen from the colorful jug and tapped the sign in sheet, which was nearly filled with names of what Hikaru assumed were the other customers. Hikaru nodded slightly as she grabbed the pen the lady, Ichikawa-san according to her name tag, handed her.

"Yes. This is all new to me." She admitted, carefully writing her name down on the sign in sheet. "Anyone can play here, right?"

The last thing she needed was for them to not let her in.

"Of course. How strong of a player are you? We could find you someone willing to play at your level." The lady gave her a polite, yet sort of plastered on smile.

'_She thinks I'm a complete beginner.'_ Hikaru resisted the urge to frown and nodded her head instead. She may not be as good as Sai was, but she knew her way well enough around a go board.

It wasn't like she wasn't expecting it, though. From what her grandfather told her, pretty girls like herself (a rather untrue statement in her book) wouldn't usually be caught playing Go. Hikaru couldn't blame them. She wasn't really any better as she had resulted to a disguise for this.

"I've been playing for a while as a hobby with my grandfather. I just wanted to come out and test my skills against a real opponent this time." She said, ignoring the slight jab at her skill with a polite smile. "I think I'm pretty good."

"You think you're pretty good?" Ichikawa-san gave her an amused expression, like you would give a bragging kid. "Well, I'm sure we can wait for someone here to open and be able to play you. I think a few games in the front should be over soon."

Hikaru put down her pen (eye twitching at another jab to her pride), finding the price sheets listed on the counter on a taped down sheet. She felt her wallet cry as she reluctantly pulled out the 500 yen she had begged for her mother to give her and forked it over to the woman. Hikaru shot a side glare to the ghost, who was happily looking around the entire salon and trying to sneak a peak at people's games.

'_This better be worth it, Sai. That was my allowance for the next two weeks.' _She thought, more to herself than to the ghost.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something that caught her attention. A few seconds later, she made eye contact with a boy around her age who was playing alone in the back of the shop. Her smile brightened at the thought of playing against another kid rather than an old man. She waved at him, giving her most cheerful smile to get his attention. He seemed to notice her and pointed at himself, which Hikaru nodded to.

"Can I play him over there?" She asked, gesturing over to him with her sketchbook, who was now making his way over to her. "He's my age, I think."

"A-Actually, I think-" The counter lady was interrupted by the boy getting out of his seat and making his way over to them.

_"Your first game against a new opponent, Hikaru!" _Sai cheered like a mother watching their child on their first soccer game. Hikaru ignored him in favor of waving to the kid in front of her.

He was rather odd for a boy his age, as he was wearing a suit that reminded her of her father's clients and with an aura around him that made her want to keep her distance. Despite this, she couldn't help but notice how nice looking he actually was. His features were soft, but not so much as to look feminine, and blended together with his face to make a perfect model. His eyes were green and so beautiful to look at that she ended up running a mental checklist of all the colors she could use to replicate them. She had never wanted to draw someone so bad in her life.

"Are you looking for an opponent?" He asked, his voice making her realize that she had been staring. "I'm waiting for someone, but I can play you until then."

"Akira-kun! But she's-" Ichikawa-san didn't get to finish her sentence as he raised his hand up, which caused her to shut up.

Normally, Hikaru would have considered this kind of rude, but she was a bit too eager to start playing now that she had an opponent to notice. She would never admit it to Sai (she'd eat her own boot first), but she had been getting a bit tired of the same people every time.

"Shall we go?" He asked her. Hikaru nodded eagerly and began to follow the strange kid to the back of the room to the table he was sitting at.

Hikaru set her sketchbook and purse down on the corner of the desk, sitting down with slight difficulty in the lacy skirt and crossing her legs. A small shiver ran down her legs as they touched cold wood for the first time in ages. The boy sat down across from her and began to set up his side of the table. Hikaru followed in suit.


	2. Chapter 2

"My name's Touya Akira." He said. "And you are?"

"Shindo Hikaru." She answered. "I'm in the 7th grade."

"I'm in the 7th grade too." He, now known as Touya, said. "How strong are you?"

The question caught her a little off guard. No one had really asked her that question before, unless she counted the sign up sheet in the front. And, seeing as how she never really played with that many people, she wasn't quite sure what the answer was. Sure, she knew Sai and her grandfather considered her strong, but they did teach her and she wasn't really sure how much bias was in their words (a lesson her teachers had drilled into her from their constant praise).

"I'm not really sure." Hikaru finally answered after a moment. "I don't really play with many people other than my grandfather."

He looked amused and laughed a bit, causing a slight blush to form on her cheeks.

_'How rude. One should never underestimate an opponent, no matter who they are!' _Sai huffed, causing Hikaru in wardly roll her eyes.

_'Sai, it's fine. Look around. Do you see any other girls my age here? Or any girls at all?' _She thought. _'I'm sure he doesn't mean much by it. I don't really look like the standard go player.'_

At this, Hikaru ran her hand through her think, curled hair for emphasis and looked down at the white shirt that exposed her bare shoulders. Not something you would see in a typical go salon.

_'Even so, Hikaru, anyone can be a challenge and it does no good to look down on someone because they don't look the part. Back when I was alive, women...'_

"I'm sure you'll do just fine." Touya said, thankfully helping her tune Sai out again. "Why don't you put down 8 or 9 stones to start?"

Now that caused her to raise her eyebrows slightly. That was quite a big handicap, especially coming from someone her own age. Just how good was this kid (or think he was) to offer that much? Not even Sai or her grandfather offered their opponent that much (well, none at all for Sai, but that wasn't the point).

"None, but thank you for offering. I don't really need a handicap against a boy my own age, after all." She said with a slight shrug. "Besides, it's more fun if we play even."

He blushed, at least having the decency to look embarrassed. Whether it was for himself or her, though, she couldn't tell.

"No handicap against Touya-sensei?" A pair of men laughed from the next table over. "That poor girl."

Hikaru's looked over at them, only to see them look away from her in amusement. Her eye twitched a bit, but she turned back to Touya before she could say anything.

"Well then, why don't you take black then?" Touya said.

Hikaru inwardly sighed, a bit annoyed at the subtle handicap, but decided that this was as good as she was going to get from him. She reached her hand into the black stones, pulled one out and looked around the board for her first move. That didn't stop her from noticing the way he was looking at her hand.

_'You're holding your stones wrong again, Hikaru.' _Sai said, causing her to jump inwardly.

It was true. She had never really gotten the hang of holding go stones after the many years of holding her brushes and pencils. And she never really bothered to learn it either. It might have also been the fact that she grabbed her stones before making her move, unlike her grandfather and Akari. Just like with pencils, it was easier to think with the material already in her hand. Habits died hard and this wasn't one that she was really in a hurry to get rid of. After all, it only mattered where she put her stones, not how she held them and when.

She placed her stone down lightly at 17-4, a smile of delight tugging at her lips.

* * *

2 moku. She had won by 2 moku.

Hikaru stared at board which held the hardest game that she had ever won in her life. It had been close, so very close, and it was only by pure luck that she saw that move that managed to save her territory from his trap. Her stomach lurched a bit as she realized that, if he had not underestimated her so much as the beginning, there was no way that she could have won this game. No wonder he had offered such a large handicap to her. This kid was an absolute monster at this game. He would have completely destroyed her in no time.

A large smile graced her face.

She had never felt so great than she did now. It was exciting, thrilling even, to finish such a game. It was the same feeling she got whenever she finished a complex painting or pulled herself out of an art block or learned her way around a new technique. For the first time in nearly a year, go was fun. Truly fun. She had never realized how bored she was until this game, of playing the same players every day. A new opponent was just what she needed to pull her out of this slump. Overcoming a challenge never felt so good. No wonder Sai wanted her to get out and go play more people.

She really needed to thank him later.

Her smiled died, however, as she looked up at the boy across from her. He was staring at the bored with a mixture of shock, horror and disbelief. His hands were shaking in his lap and he looked like he was close to tears. She blinked in confusion, then frowned is annoyance and slight anger. Hikaru recognized that look. It was the same look that competitors in art contests, both children and adults alike, help whenever they won anything other than first place. She really hated that look.

Did he not enjoy the game? Or was he just mad that he lost? Suddenly, she really didn't want to be here anymore.

"Thank you for the game, Touya-san." Hikaru said, standing up and scooping up her stuff.

She was just about to turn around to leave, when he suddenly stood up.

"Who the hell are you?"


	3. Chapter 3

The salon went quiet, nearly silent, from Touya's sudden outburst. The old men in the salon were staring with a mixture of shock, disbelief and confusion. Even Sai had frozen to stare at him, though with an expression that she didn't quite recognize. She looked around with her eyes, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the new attention. She fidgeted in her place, trying not to look at any of the shocked faces head on while keeping herself calm. Just what was this guy's deal?

"Um...Shindo Hikaru?" Hikaru said.

Hikaru pushed her chair in and straightened out, trying to act as normal as possible while trying to inch her way to the door while clutching her stuff tightly. She looked over at him and gulped when she saw him. Suddenly, those shining green eyes of his weren't beautiful anymore, but downright terrifying. If he looked at her any more intently, he would have pierced her soul with his intensity.

"Why have I never heard of you?" He asked, tearing his eyes away from her and down to the game they played.

_'Sai, what's he talking about?' _Hikaru asked.

'_I believe he's talking about your skill, Hikaru.' _Sai started. '_His skill is that beyond that of a normal child. Your win in the game must not have been something that he was expecting.__.'_

_'Great. So he's one of "those" prodigies that can't handle someone being better than them at something. I guess even Go has them.' _Hikaru thought, suddenly feeling even more annoyed than before.

"Because we just met?" She said, rolling her eyes inwardly. "Look man, you're kind of freaking me out here. I don't know what I did to make you angry. If you didn't like the game, I'm sorry, but-"

"Didn't like the game?!" Touya whispered, though with his tone, if felt as if he yelled at her.

He stayed silent for a while. Hikaru stood there awkwardly, debating whether or not to bolt and draw more attention to herself.

Whispers started to be heard throughout the salon, most men asking each other what happened and who Hikaru was. A few were trying to look at their game from the nearby tables or overhead in the higher sections, only to be shocked by the closeness of the results. The whispers only grew louder the more she stayed there. The next question caught her off guard again.

"Are you an insei? Or studying under a pro?" His tone was almost accusing and he was back to glaring at her.

"A what?" She asked, trying to understand what he just said. "I'm not studying under anyone, unless you count my grandfather, but he only taught me the basics."

The words sounded familiar. Her grandfather had mentioned them on multiple occasions when she played him, but when he saw that she wasn't interested, he had dropped it after a week. Hikaru for the life of her couldn't recall what those were, though. Pro though...as in a professional? Sort of like her a professional artist like her mother? They had that for Go still?

Touya looked at her life she had grown a second head or if she was lying. Somehow, that stung more than his anger from before.

_'This bitch.'_

Another surge of annoyance grew in her chest. Hikaru at that point decided that she was done with that conversation. Before he could say anything else, she turned around and headed towards the door. She gave a small nod to the cashier woman, then turned around to wave to Touya. If she was going to leave this place, then she was going to leave like a boss.

"Thank you for the game, Touya-san. However, I can see that I'm not welcomed here. Goodbye."

And that was the most badass exit of her life. Or at least, it would have been a badass exit, if only she hadn't tripped on her boots and spilled the contents of her purse. Her face starting to turn red, she quickly picked up her stuff and bolted out the door before anyone had the chance to help her up. In her haste, she didn't notice the cards that she left behind on the floor of the salon.

* * *

**2 hours later**

"We're never going back there again, Sai." She said for the fifth time that hour, angrily sketching a random tree as she sat in the seats of the swings at the park near her house. "We're finding a new salon. One that's cheaper and doesn't have people like him in it."

Sai only sat beside her, looking lost in thought as he watched her make marks on the paper with accuracy and ease. Her anger was clearly showing in the sharpness of the curves.

"Stupid Touya Whatever His First Name Is! Probably thought that he could beat me easily because I'm a girl! Who does he think he is?!" She ranted.

'_But Hikaru, you said that it didn't bother you if he underestimated you because you were woman.'_

"WELL IT DOES NOW!" She shouted, earning the attention of a little boy walking with his mother, who quickly pretended not to see her. "I DON'T CARE THAT HE PLAYS AN AMAZING GAME OF GO OR IF HIS SCARY EYES ARE PRETTY ENOUGH TO DRAW! I REFUSE TO BE UNDERESTIMATED BY THAT...THAT...THAT BOY!"

She didn't even bother coming up with an insult this time. Sai sighed as he listened to her start to rant again and began to draw rapidly in her sketchbook, but smiled fondly as the fresh page's marks began to form the shape of the Touya boy and his "scary" eyes. He knew Hikaru well enough at this point to see the new fire being lit underneath the anger.

* * *

**Meanwhile...**

Akira stared at the game that he recreated a dozen times already. After studying it gor a while, he could see all the mistakes that his opponent had made that had thrown her off every time and the areas of improvement that he would have done. The play was old, almost as if from another era entirely and from what it seemed like, none of her moves had taken the Komi rule into consideration. However, as imperfect as the play was, one particular move had caught his attention.

8-5.

A move that had seemed to come out of nowhere, one that would have been considered a bad move by anyone he could ask. He had attacked it, of course, thinking nothing of a stone that served no purpose. That was, until nearly ten hands later, when that move had placed her stones in such a perfect position that had allowed her to not only make it an even game, but had ripped territory from him in the process.

How far did she read into the game that let her pull a move like that? Was it a big risk or was she controlling the game the entire time? Was this how strong she was and what potential did she have to unlock? And more importantly...

"Who are you, Shindo Hikaru?"


End file.
